Building record 1122500000 - THE OLD POST OFFICE

Grade II. Cottage. C17-Cl8, altered. Rubble stone to left gable, remainder whitewashed brick. Thatched roof. Brick stacks, one external to left gable, the other to right of centre front. One storey and attic, 2 broad bays. 2-light leaded casements with cambered heads to ground floor, 3-light casements in thatch, that to left C19 with leaded outer panes, that to right C2O. Both bays have doors to right, that to left-hand bay boarded with timber porch. Small lean-to to left gable (B1).
This building has additional significance through its association with Flora Thompson, the author of Lark Rise to Candleford. Flora was, albeit unwittingly, distantly related to the Giffards and Wenmans of Twyford. Her uncle, Thomas Whiting, moved to Twyford around 1877 and Flora would come to stay in Twyford. She is said to have worked briefly at the Old Post Office in 1895 (Watts & Bloxham pp.207-214). The 1910 Valuation Survey (taken in 1914) shows the house and shop owned and occupied by Philip George Dudley, listed as a butcher in the 1911 directory. At that time the property included land now redeveloped as part of Brook Farm Close and there was an old brick and thatched barn. [Photo] (B2).